This farmer’s toor is the envy of others

Anand Bagalkot, a farmer in Somadevarahatti village, is expecting a bumper crop as he has cultivated the BSMR-736 variety of toor.
Anand Bagalkot, a farmer in Somadevarahatti village, is expecting a bumper crop as he has cultivated the BSMR-736 variety of toor.

While many toor farmers have to watch their standing crop wither owing to deficit rain, the sight at the farm of Anand Bagalkot is the envy of other farmers.

On the five-acre farm in Somadevarahatti village, the lush green crop which stands over five-feet tall is a stark contrast to most of the crop in the district.

The main reason is that Mr. Bagalkot has used the new variety of toor seed, BSMR-736, which is believed to be the best for irrigated land.

It has been developed by University of Agriculture Sciences, Dharwad.

Speaking to The Hindu, Manjunath, Joint Director of the Agriculture Department, said that unlike the traditional variety, which gives a maximum yield of five quintals per acre, the ‘736’ variety could give a yield of nearly 20 quintals per acre if maintained properly.

“However, the crop takes about 210 days to grow while the traditional crop takes only 130 days. Though the farmers will have to spent couple of more months to get the crop, yet the benefits of waiting is high,” he said.

He said that another advantage of the improved variety is that since the first three months is only the vegetative period, the farmers could use the time for inter-cropping to sow groundnut or green gram which would give additional revenue.

He said that the cost of cultivating the traditional crop is around Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 12,000 per acre. The ‘736’ variety will cost the farmer around Rs. 18,000 per acre.

“After that, the farmer could earn around Rs. 80,000 per acre while the traditional variety will fetch the farmer only Rs. 30,000 per acre,” he said. He said the variety is good for places such as Bidar which receives around 800 mm rain per year, but in places such as Vijayapura, the farmers should have irrigation facility as the district does not receive this quantum of rain.

The official said that since pulses do not damage the soil fertility commercial crop such as sugarcane, the traditional sugarcane farmers could switch over to this variety of toor for higher yield.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Firoz Rozindar / Vijayapura – December 17th, 2016

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